The Archipelago Conversations

15 years of conversations between Caribbean philosopher Édouard Glissant and his friend Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Édouard Glissant—champion of islands and key philosopher for the 21st Century—offers an escape from the traps of globalisation and nationalism. A vision for a decentralized and interdependent world.

Over fifteen years, Glissant reflected on his life and philosophy with his friend Hans Ulrich Obrist. This was something like an education, the foundation for Obrist's approach to curating. As one of today's most prolific producers of culture, Obrist has left an indelible mark—and Glissant through him.

Obrist has long pursued Glissant's vision across museums and galleries, but—with the destruction of environments, extinction of languages, and the volatility of reality—he believes that Glissant's philosophy is necessary beyond academic and curatorial walls. Returning to the records of their encounter, Obrist edited, reworked, and arranged their conversations in their entirety for the first time and for a broad public audience. Archipelago is the result—enlightening us, as only Glissant can, as to how we might form an interdependent Earth. It is a ready-to-hand tool, ten years after Glissant's death, for building new politics, societies, and institutions—to be carried and shared.

As Obrist writes in his preface, Archipelago is the start of a campaign that will unfold in the coming months and years: "I hope to direct us all towards Édouard's vision for the universe: the Tout-Monde or One-World—where all cultures can come into contact, listen to one another, and influence each other. It is a vision that remains urgent and that requires doing, even when the result seems unrealizable, utopian... The world today is inextricable, everything is entangled—but how should we embrace it?"